Emma Harvey – Whay Would joan Jett Do?
We have an outburst coming up, a month of shows, another Columbia Road Takeover, three Cultivate shows that will take in all of November at East London’s rather well proportioned Shipton Street Gallery. The gallery, in a former greengrocer’s shop by Columbia Road, the Flower Market and everything that that involves and this time the month-long November takeover of the space. We kick off with a short sharp two day show over the first weekend, no opening night, no private view, just a a shorty sharp two day show opening on Saturday morning and closing on Sunday evening. Harvey and Worrall – Chips, Starz, What Would Joan Jett Do? will open on Saturday November 2nd and close on Sunday November 3rd, 11am until 5pm on both days.
This year Emma Harvey has been playing with her riot grrrl flavours a little more, following on from last year’s Seven Year Bitch referencing “I Saw it First,I Want it Worse” show in the same venue, a show that saw Emma exhibit 43 paintings of riot grrrl and female punk bands – this year she’s been playing with her pop art punk rock print making side, her Joan Jett or Chips piece at this year’s Art Car Boot Fair that leads directly to her asking just what Joan Jett might do at this show…… The rather beautifully handmade sets of limited edition prints have been evolving alongside her continued exploration of very personal, very painterly things, her evolving series of circle paintings that she says are gathering for a future solo show. I think there’s been something like twenty of the circle paintings now, they’ve been emerging at shows over the last couple of years. Meanwhile to compliment Emma’s Joan Jett punk rock flavours I may well dig into the Organ archive from the fanzine/record label days for a piece of art or two to hang next to more of the recent fruit paintings that have been emerging this year since that market trader on Ridley Road threw that lemon back in January. Actually we have almost two weeks to go yet, we don’t know what we’re going to hang for the weekend yet, we have thirteen days to go before the doors open on Saturday morning, we have plenty of time to select work, make more work and maybe invite a guest artist or two to come join us.
138: SEAN WORRALL – “The Luck of a Thousand Stars” – Acrylic, brushwork, spray paint, marker pen, gloss varnish – 55cm x 75cm, (March 2018)
Harvey and Worrall – Chips, Starz, What Would Joan Jett Do? will run for one weekend only, we’re hanging it on the Friday afternoon, then we’re off to Atom Gallery for the opening night of the Can I Get a Slice Hackney Foodbank benefit show, then we shall be back to Columbia Road and Shipton Street Gallery for the short sharp two day weekend show, tit will all come down at the close of play on Sunday so we can hang the second of three shows that will make up the latest Cultivate November Takeover Emma Harvey’s limited edition prints including some new ones that will be seen for the first time at the show will be on same over the weekend at just £10 each, Sean Worrall will have some new painted vinyl pieces priced at just £5 for the weekend as well as a number of very reasonably priced freshly painted still-life fruit studies and maybe one or two old Organ treasures dug out from the corner of the studio…
Nothing is Square – The second takeover show will open on Thursday November 7th, once again everyone is welcome, none of that get on a list or give us all your details nonsense. Entry is free, just turn up, bring some drink if you wish, come drink ours if you wish
Everything will be square, all about squares, squares of art, all uniform. What the invited artists do within those squares is really up to them. The square will be a canvas, 20cm x 20cm x 1cm, we demand that every single canvas to be EXACTLY the same in terms of dimensions. There is no theme besides the square, the square is the theme, the squares will unite the art in the show, besides the square and the rule that everyone is working on the same size canvas, there are no other rules. We’ve invited artists, we had an open call element, we have once again been very very (very) picky in terms of the artists we’ve invited and accepted to take part, this isn’t a free for all, we are very selective, but once an artist is invited what they do with 20cm square is really up to them. We anticipate a healthy mix of contemporary painting, abstract goodness, figurative warmth, a touch of forward looking pop, maybe a street art flavour or two (carefully avoiding the street art clichés of course) All work will be on sale at what we think will be an affordable price to most, the hang will be busy, expect around 90 pieces of art on the walls
Nothing is Square will open on Thursday evening November 7th, and then the gallery will be open for two weekends, 11am until 5pm, 9th/10th November and 16th/17thNovember
Artists taking part in Nothing is Square ANITA KUTSAROVA, DAY BOWMAN, EMMA HARVEY, JAMES BELL, JAMES JOHNSTON, JOHN GATERCOLE, JOSEPH SAKOILSKY, KELDA STORM, MADELEINE STRINDBERG, MANDEE GAGE, MARY T SPENCE, MATT ATKINS, MIA-JANE HARRIS, QUIET BRITISH ACCENT, SAL JONES, SEAN WORRALL, STEFDIES. SUSIE HAMILTON, SUZIE PINDAR, TONY BERKMAN, TRIBAMBUKA, TWINKLE TROUGHTON, VESNA PARCHET and YULIA ROBINSON
And then…
CULTIVATE... Artists doing it our way 